Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Ethics Versus Fear

I was unable to get this published in the State newspapers, but that means I get to put it here. Thank you for your time!

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Ethics Or Fear

An ethic is a belief system founded in right and
wrong, whether concerning conduct or mindset.Colloquially it is based in the heart, a nurturing soil of sentiment, reason,
and spirit.Morality can be willfully
broken or blind, in which case it ceases to be ethical.On the other hand, critical thinking can
merge with passion and, importantly, honesty, to comprehend life with agape and
awe.Einstein spoke to this confluence
of intrapsychic forces when he wrote, "The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious.It is the
source of all true art and science."

In the 2016 election, two million more voters
chose Clinton than Trump.In effect,
they were voting for equality, a concept rationally argued by the
Founders. Equality has had a recent surge, rippling the world consciousness. The #MeToo Movement exemplifies this incipient transformation. So does the quest for LGBT rights. In the
second most populous country in the world, India, gay sex was recently decriminalized. All this is huge. Massive social protests based on benevolent
philosophies are major players today.After several millennia of relative stagnation, civilization has been rocked by Enlightenment ideals, a keystone being women's suffrage, achieved in the US in
1920.

Central to this ethical ferment is a profound and
widespread sense of empathy.Indeed,
caring and cooperation are common across the animal kingdom, having a strong
basis in natural selection.In humans,
empathy often combines with a spiritual element, accessed through religion,
meditation, or a primal awakening to the majesty of nature. Such feelings and attitudes exist across all cultures.Combined
with principled government, they establish norms of reason, based on
dignity, respect, and hale stewardship of the planet Earth.

Another way to govern is through fear.When President Trump spoke
in his inaugural speech of ending "American carnage," he framed
reality as a brutal competition.An arena, one where you must win at all costs. In some cases, the end does justify the means. Whether this is an ethical argument or not,
however, depends on clear-headed appraisal, not reckless and unthinking
panic.

For Trump, to win is not to do something
ethical.It is to seize material success.This has been channeled, in part, into the rhetoric of jobs. To have a job is to win.However, no
distinction is made between a fulfilling job and a soul-numbing one.No thought is given to environmental
consequences. Or to health benefits.Or to the increasing deficit.No quarter is yielded to the fate of future
generations. In sum, no vigilance is
maintained over the moral compass of the country.

Ethical governance opens the mind.Fear-chained governance closes it.The cost of wearing such stress-sewn blinders
is not only psychological, not only impairs reason; it has also the practical
effect of undercutting our ability to adapt in a complex, changing
world.As ice sheets melt, as mass
extinction proceeds, as Texas-sized garbage patches gyre in the oceans, as
catastrophic fire and storm punish our failure to admit the insights of
science, our mendacious President fixates on an irrational threat to a
mythologized white culture.Nothing good
will come of it.

About Me

Owl Who Laughs is an alter-ego of a poet-philosopher who is pretty persnickety in his own right. When diffracted through prisms in the UnderMind, his sensitivity and anger intensify to fuel the mini-jeremiads of Owl Who Laughs.
Perhaps the poet has made a Faustian bargain with the spirits. Maybe whatever faulty eloquence he musters comes at the price of nicks and sips to his soul.
Or maybe Truth is a harried creature, exiled by civilization, and long gone feral. It stares through the darkness of social deceit like a predator. Swoops down and relishes a morsel of joy as it indicts.
Beware. Owl Who Laughs does not guffaw like businessmen at a french restaurant or musically chuckle like belles at a soiree. The creature’s laugh is nigh on a screech. It is a forced alternative to the other option.
Read on only if you feel that the norm of sanity has gone blind.